A Matter Of Conscience, A Plea For Peace

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

A Matter Of Conscience, A Plea For Peace
From http://www.saneramblings.com

Yesterday, the House for the first time ever voted against funding the Iraq war, as it rejected the Iraq and Afghanistan war funding bill.

Strangely, it happened because some Republicans protested the domestic spending added to the war funding bill, and refused to support it. The war funding bill ironically with no funding now goes to the Senate. For the record, Ms. Pelosi voted against it.

Pentagon officials responded immediately with the usual threat. They claim the Army will run out of money for payroll by mid-June and for operations and maintenance by early July, if a war funding bill isn't passed by Memorial Day.

In the past, this threat has scared Congress to hastily approve enormous funding, rather than appear not to be "supporting our troops." But no-one supports troops by sending them off to die, or be physically or psychologically wounded, for a purposeless war and one most Americans do not support and the world condemns.

Each fiscal year, a U.S. government budget is approved, including a massive spending allocation as requested by the Pentagon. We're now just several months into that budget, and the Army says it is running out of money already.

See if you could run a family budget like that. Spend freely and then if you run out of money, go to your boss and demand more. If he or she refuses, threaten this person with an embarrassing incident and take it to the media to heavily publicize it. My guess is you'll lose your job and you'll be confronted with bankruptcy.

For now, the House rejected more war funding, which is a small victory but still a victory for those of us who want to end these wars. But it will be short lived, especially under Pentagon pressure, if we do not continue our efforts.

Thank you for having the courage to take action and for making your voice heard.

Dick